A front body section of a car body includes a wheel apron as a side wall forming part of an engine compartment. Such a wheel apron is welded to an outer side of a front side frame in the form of a U-channel or a boxed U-channel which generally extends in a lengthwise direction over the front body section. The wheel apron includes a wheel housing formed integrally therewith to which a suspension tower is attached to receive therein a shock absorber of a wheel suspension apparatus. A front body construction of a car body as noted is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Pat. No. 58-103,202 entitled "Body Construction of a Vehicle" filed on July 2, 1983 and laid open as Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication Pat. No. 60-11,274 on Jan. 25, 1985.
In order to provide a rigid structure for such front body sections, a connective structure between the wheel apron and front side frame is of importance. In particular, the suspension tower connected to the wheel housing of the wheel apron is subjected to a large lateral load applied from the front wheel suspension apparatus while the vehicle is traveling. In the connective structure and/or a reinforcing structure between the suspension tower and the wheel housing of the wheel apron, the suspension tower inevitably tends to lean somewhat toward the inside of the engine compartment (such action of the suspension tower is, in this specification, referred to as an inward leaning). If in fact such an inward leaning takes place, the part of the wheel apron forming the side wall of the engine compartment experiences a torsional deformation or vibration due to an external force acting on the wheel housing from the suspension tower.
Heretofore, in order to eliminate torsional deformations or vibrations of the wheel apron, a reinforcing member has usually been applied to the connection between the suspension tower and the wheel housing. Alternatively, a U-shaped reinforcing bracket connected between a side wall of the wheel housing of the wheel apron to which the suspension tower is attached and an outer side of the front side frame has been used.
A problem associated with such conventional connecting structures is that, although the provision of reinforcing members improves the connective strength between the wheel housing of the front wheel apron and the front side frame, it is insufficient to receive an external force acting on the suspension tower by the front side frame because the reinforcing member is connected to only one side wall of the front side frame. Therefore, an extra reinforcing member is needed to increase the connective strength of a connected section between the suspension tower on which the suspension apparatus exerts a torsional force and the wheel housing of the wheel apron.